96-J-17. Shimizu, Takashi and Nobuo Takaha-shi, "Evolution of Cooperation in the Finitely Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma", Sept. 1996.

This paper treats the emergence and preservation of cooperation in the finitely repeated prisoner's dilemma.

Cooperative behavior in the prisoner's dilemma has often been observed, even if the number of repetition is definite. But it can not be rationalized from the theory. On this subject, Shimizu [1996] reveals the emerging process of cooperation from the follow-up study of Axelrod's simulation.

In this paper, we discuss this and examine the `gradual decline' of cooperation from our new simulation. We will show that when the nature of the interaction is long enough term, the gradual decline takes very long time. Therefore, cooperation can be regarded as `pseudo stable'.